Top 10 Games Sony Should Include On The Playstation Classic

VO: Adrian Sousa
WRITTEN BY: Jarett Burke
In celebration of the PlayStation Classic, let's travel back to 1999! For this list, we’re looking at the video games that helped define a generation on the PSOne and made us fall in love with blocky polygons and pre-rendered backgrounds.
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We’re going back in time like it’s 1999! Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Games Sony Needs to Include on the Mini PlayStation Classic.

For this list, we’re looking at the games that helped define a generation on the PSOne and made us fall in love with blocky polygons, pre-rendered backgrounds and, yes, even load times. There were a few highly innovative games we would have loved to include, namely “Ape Escape,” but since the console won’t be supporting dual-shock controllers, we reluctantly had to leave a few classics off this list.

#10: Our Top 10 PSOne Games List

This list was published back in 2014 and we still stand by it today, which makes it a quick way to mention more games we think should be on the PS Classic into one spot! Cheating? Hardly! There are 15 more spots to fill on Sony’s Nostalgia Box, so we figured we’d give you a few extra entries – free of charge. Sony has already announced that “Final Fantasy 7” will be on the Classic despite it getting a remake sometime soon, so it doesn’t appear that plans to re-release, remaster or even remake games exclude them from being included. That’s good news for “Resident Evil 2” fans and lovers of “Castlevania” Symphony of the Night.”

#9: “Crash Bandicoot” trilogy (1996-1998)

As “Final Fantasy 7” proves, just because it’s being re-released doesn’t mean it won’t be included. So, the addition of Crash is just a no-brainer! And, why settle for one when we could have all three? He’s considered the system’s mascot, after all, so he deserves special treatment. With last year’s release of the “N Sane” trilogy being well received on multiple systems, the original versions of the game could make for an interesting comparison for die-hard Crash fans. For people who aren’t that diehard and skipped the remastered collection, it would be a great way to relive the classic platformer just as you remember.

#8: “Final Fantasy Tactics” (1997)

There’s no such thing as too much of a good thing, so that’s why we’re adding another “Final Fantasy” title to the list in “Final Fantasy Tactics.” The game had more in common with the “Fire Emblem” series than it did with Square’s traditional RPG franchise, so it’s different enough to include without feeling too similar to “Final Fantasy 7.” It’s also seen several re-releases, but that won’t stop it from potentially being one of the highlights of the PS Classic and another RPG to help pad-out the console’s re-playability factor.

#7: “PaRappa The Rapper” (1997)

We’d be remiss if we left off the ultra-cute rapping puppy that helped introduce rhythm games to home consoles back in the Late 90s. Would we even have “Guitar Hero” or “Rock Band” today if PaRappa hadn’t rhymed his way into our hearts with his kid-friendly beats about cooking dinner and passing his driver’s test? The sheer level of innovation this game brought to the PSOne back in the day is more than enough reason for it to be included on this list, but … we really just want to hear Chop Chop Master Onion’s track one more time!

#6: “Tomb Raider” (1996)

Sure, it may be clunky to play with its tank controls and may look like a bit like a bunch of squares, rectangles and circles dancing together in unison, but it’s often cited as one of the best video games ever made, it was one of the first titles to introduce us to huge 3D worlds, and it gave us one of the most memorable characters in all of gaming, so there’s no way we couldn’t include it! Try to imagine the video game landscape without Lara Croft. Go ahead, we’ll wait. … You can’t! And with “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” released just last month, what better time to revisit the title that started it all?

#5: “MediEvil” (1998)

This title is also getting the remastered treatment soon, but it would make a perfect fit on the PS Classic to allow fans of the series a chance to run through the original environments once more as Sir Daniel Fortesque before seeing the game upgraded on the PS4. With its quirky visuals based on Tim Burton’s “A Nightmare Before Christmas” and its gameplay inspired by role-playing adventure games like the Zelda franchise, it’s the perfect mix of fun and adventure. Sure, the camera and controls will be rough, but that just comes with the territory of games released back in the Late 90s. But, it’s also part of their charm!

#4: “Resident Evil 3: Nemesis” (1999)

This entry in the beloved “Resident Evil” series was designed to be more action-oriented than the first two, but the addition of the raging, hulking Nemesis was more than enough to absolutely scare the B-Jesus out of us then… and now! We’re sure we’re not the only ones who continually thought we were hearing the word “S.T.A.R.S.” coming from outside our bedroom door in a monstrous growl while trying to sleep at night. Yet, we continued to play and love this title anyway - sleep be damned! It also saw the return of Jill Valentine and continued her story from the first entry.

#3: “Tekken 3” (1998)

It’s considered one of the best fighting games of all time and even one of the best games period, and we can’t argue with that. The leap which “Tekken 3” made from other PSOne Era fighters was enormous not only in terms of visuals but also in gameplay and modes as well, adding the super-fun, arcade-style Beat ‘Em Up mode called Tekken Force. It was an extremely popular game on the PlayStation, selling over 8.5 million copies around the world and becoming the 4th best-selling PSOne game of all time. Heck, even people who didn’t like fighting games were impressed with “Tekken 3” back in the day!

#2: “Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee” (1997)

This game impressed a whole lot of folks who weren’t expecting it back in 1997, receiving many awards in the process like the “E3 Showstopper” award from GamePro along with garnering much critical success. Sure, it’s hard as hell and only being allowed to save at greatly spaced-out checkpoints makes it even harder, but … Hey! We love a challenge! And also, the plethora of game guides available for the title nowadays would surely help reduce some of the frustration that comes with the game over twenty years ago. Also, we’d get to see Abe’s lovely face again, and that’s one weirdly cute mug we can’t get enough of!

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

“Wipeout 2097” (1996)

“Dino Crisis” (1999)

“Xenogears” (1998)

#1: “Crash Team Racing” (1999)

The fourth game in the Crash series took a “slightly” different approach to the now-classic platforming gameplay of the first three entries, and we couldn’t have been more thankful back in 1999 as PlayStation fans because we FINALLY got our long-awaited answer to Nintendo’s “Mario Kart.” Couch multiplayer is something we greatly miss in this current gaming age, so the fact that the PS Classic comes with two controllers makes this the perfect entry on our list. We can’t wait to sit down with friends in battle mode and beat the hell out of one another as Crash, Coco, Dr. Cortex and the rest of the gang.